


The New Year Gift

by Crollalanza



Series: Advent Winter Challenge [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Getting Together, Growing Up, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22071949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crollalanza/pseuds/Crollalanza
Summary: Tooru's first impression of Matsukawa Issei had been how tall he was. His second that he appeared to have something wrong with his neck as he kept rubbing it. So he decides he has to help.Three years later, on their New Year's Day visit to the shrine, Tooru presents Mattsun with his gift.
Relationships: Matsukawa Issei/Oikawa Tooru
Series: Advent Winter Challenge [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565479
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100
Collections: Haikyuu Cold and Cozy Bingo





	The New Year Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ewagan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewagan/gifts).



> This is part of the cosy winter challenge. Ewa prompted me to write MatsuOi and scarf sharing, and here it is. Thank you! I had a lot of fun with these guys.

The first thing Tooru had ever noticed about Matsukawa Issei was how tall he was. _A third year?_ He wondered as they wandered into the Aobajousai gym, yet it wasn’t just the height but his assurance as he ambled towards the doors.

The second thing he noticed was how when they sat after making their introductions, Matsukawa had rolled his shoulders and massaged his neck with thin fingers.

Quite a long neck.

“He’s like a giraffe,” he told Iwa-chan later.

“Don’t start!”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t give him a shitty nickname like Giraffe-chan. I’d like to get on with these people. They could be teammates soon.”

“I wasn’t going to!” Tooru retorted stung. “Anyway, I like giraffes!”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He kicked a stone across the road, mutinous because once again Iwa-chan was picking on him for no conceivable reason. “I think he has a bad neck. He kept touching it.”

“Must have slept in a draft.”

“Can that really happen?”

Shrugging, Iwa-chan picked up his pace, bored with the conversation. “That’s what my dad says. He’s always telling me to close the car window. Wanna get some pork buns?”

“He’s a middle blocker.”

“I was there, you know,” Iwa-chan replied.

“We need tall players.”

“Yeah. Pork buns?”

He agreed and sat in the café with Iwa-chan to eat them, yet although it was their first day and they were both full of excitement at seeing the new gym they’d call home for the next three year, Tooru’s thoughts also strayed to Matsukawa Issei and the way his fingers had kept touching the nape of his neck.

_He needs to keep warm._

“Couldn’t you just buy one?” Iwa-chan asked. “It’d be cheaper and quicker I bet.”

“No.” Tooru stared at the rows and rows of colours in front of him then reached out to select a ball of wool. “Setters need to exercise their fingers at all times.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It’s true. Just like you’re a Wing Spiker and you need to ensure those arm muscles are big and strong!” He turned around and smiled. “Which is why you can carry my shopping home.”

“Carry your own yarn,” Iwa-chan grumbled. “And you’ll need more than one ball.”

* * *

It’s their third shrine visit together and will be their last—at least for a while. Tooru’s plans mean he won’t be around and the other two … Issei watches Iwaizumi and Takahiro squaring off for yet another arm wrestling bout as they wait for their coffees, and he wonders whether they’ll be here next year too.

Things are changing and although that’s inevitable, he can’t help the gnaw at the back of his brain that his journey forwards won’t be as eventful as his teammates. Former teammates, he corrects because they’ve officially gone now, leaving Seijou to Yahaba, Watari and Mad-Dog.

“And heaven help them,” he murmurs.

“What’s that, Mattsun?” Tooru’s snuck next to him, rolling his eyes at the contest. He pays for the four coffees, carries the tray outside and calls to them all to follow.

Loping after him, Issei pulls up the collar on his coat to proof against the wind biting at his neck. “They’re still wrestling,” he says. “Shall we break it up?”

“Um…” Tooru’s biting his lip. “Um… let’s leave them to it. It’ll be their fault their drinks get cold.” He sniffs at the air, closing his eyes. “I’m going to miss this.”

“Idiots arm wrestling?” Issei inquires.

He laughs. “Partly. I meant us spending time together.”

_Us. Us? As in the four of us, or just us?_

And he wants to ask but with the catastrophic timing of a fly hitting a windscreen, Hajime bowls out of the café, a smile and cheer across his face as Takahiro emerges rubbing his hand.

Tooru sighs and hands out the coffees. “Come on,” he says and hoists his bag over one shoulder.

“It’s too cold for a picnic.” Hajime mocks, eyeing the bag.

“I…” Tooru says a touch haughtily, “have brought you all New Year gifts so you can remember me when I’m gone.”

“Please,” Takahiro snorts. “I’m trying to forget.”

“No chance!” Hajime says, laughing. “He’ll be skyping us every day moaning about the weather, the food, the people, the... OW!”

“Don’t be mean, Iwa-chan, or you won’t get your gift.”

They wander along the path to the shrine, making way for those passing in the opposite direction. The trees are frosted and beautiful, but Issei shivers, digs his hands deeper into his pockets and wishes he were anywhere else but here doing another thing which will be the last for them all.

“Do you know what I first noticed about you, Iwa-chan?” Tooru says and spins on the spot to face them.

“Nope. It’ll be something insulting, I guess.”

“Your muddy knees and scowl,” he replies. “Which told me you were active and didn’t give up.” Pulling the zip out of his bag, he throws a small box into the air, which Hajime catches with one hand.

“What’s this?”

“Open it and see.”

Intrigued, Hajime tears off the paper and gurgles out a laugh when he opens the box. “A stop watch!”

“Keep being active, Iwa-chan. Keep pushing yourself to better times and challenges.” He reaches inside for another gift, grinning as he throws it at Takahiro.

“What’s this? A cookery book?” Takahiro’s puzzled, until he reads the flyleaf. “’To Makki, now that I’m not here to continually buy you ramen and cream puffs, you’re going to have to make them yourself.’”

He laughs. “Brilliant. I will prepare a feast for your return. How about that?”

“Perfect!” He chef kisses his fingers, and then clears his throat. “Um… and this is for you, Mattsun,” Tooru says and hands over a larger present, one which is squashy and light despite its size.

He opens it carefully, fully aware that Tooru’s staring at him intensely so he can’t betray any reaction at all, whereas Hajime is curious and then astounded.

“That’s—” he yells before Tooru hushes him.

“Is it a scarf,” Issei says, holding the woollen mass of colours in his hands.

“A very long scarf,” Takahiro corrects. “Wow, is he an ostrich?”

“It’s nothing,” Tooru mutters. “You always look cold though and…” He swallows. “Sorry, I should have bought one.”

Examining it closely, Issei notices how one end seems more holey than the other. He sees the join of each colour and how half way through a pattern of zigzags appears. Somewhere towards the end he’s holding in his left hand, the stitches change becoming more elaborate and complicated. It’s possibly the most stupidly uncoordinated scarf he’s ever seen in his life, but he thinks nothing of beginning to wind it around his neck.

Hajime is unable to hold it in much longer, his voice returning in a gasp. “You started knitting that in our first year!” He stares at Tooru and then Issei. “He kept going on about how bloody tall you were and how he hoped you weren’t cold or—”

“Shut up, Iwa-chan!”

“You did?” Issei blinks.

“You were unforgivably tall back then. But we caught up,” Takahiro says, then gives Hajime a side-glance, “well most of us.”

“OI!” Hajime begins to protest and scowl, but it’s half-hearted because he’s still staring at Tooru. “You really started that in our first year for Mattsun?”

“Yes.” Tooru’s biting his lip. “I bought so much wool and kept adding to it. I’m sorry, it’s a stupid gift. I’ll get you something better.”

But Issei smiles, and looping up the rest of the scarf, he softly lassos it around Tooru, then pulls.

“Maybe we should … uh … leave them to it,” Takahiro calls out, and pulls Hajime towards the entrance gate. “See you inside, guys.”

“Take your time!” Hajime adds.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Tooru mumbles, but he doesn’t wriggle away when Issei tugs him closer still. “Do you really like it? I know it’s rough at the start, but it became a challenge, like a journey, and I couldn’t unravel the beginning without unravelling the whole lot.”

“It’s brilliant.” Issei says softly. “I love it. But why would you make me a scarf?”

“Our introduction day you were massaging your neck,” Tooru replies. “It was one of the first things I noticed about you. Iwa-chan said it was probably from sitting in a draft and so … um … a really dumb idea took hold.”

“Neck?” He frowns to himself, thinking back to that introduction, his first impressions, to meeting this boy who would change his life, and then he laughs. “It was our first day, right?”

Tooru nods.

“My mum had insisted on a ‘proper’ haircut for school. She thinks my curls are unruly, so she shaved it at the back and sides. I couldn’t get used to it. And I never let her near my hair again.”

“Good! I love your curls,” Tooru says, reaching out to tweak one of them. His fingers stay in the thatch of hair as he twists a tress.

And it’s something close to bliss having him this near and tactile and warm in his arms.

Near and tactile and warm enough to take a chance.

“First thing I noticed about you, Oikawa Tooru, was your perfect hair falling in such perfect waves. Infuriating!” He chuckles and then tilts his head down to touch his lips to Tooru’s cheek. “Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year, Mattsun.” Tooru winds his hands about Issei’s neck, linking his fingers into the wool, and sighs. “I suppose we should join the others.”

Issei ruffles his perfect hair and grins. “No, let’s stay here and share this scarf for a bit longer.”


End file.
